• Spitfire wings its way to county - the Welsh Pembrokeshire Aviation Foundation Trust will tour a fuselage of their newly-acquired Spitfire Mk. VIII JG668 around the country in the hope to raise the funds needed to restore the complete aircraft. [Western Telegraph]
  
  
• Another Spitfire touring the roads in the UK this season will be a replica towed by a Land Rover, wings detached but otherwise transferred on ordinary roads. [The Northern Echo]
  
  
• Diana Barnato Walker, acclaimed British pilot, died at 90. She started her aviation career as one of the ATA "Spitfire Women" and later become the first British female pilot to fly at supersonic speed. [New York Times]. Here's also Diana's obituary in Times Online.
  
  
• Another wartime fighter pilot, Wing Commander Paddy Barthropp, DFC, AFC, passed away on April 16, 2008, aged 87. Barthropp happened to be one of those unfortunate victims of the Fw 190 suprtiority over the Channel in 1942. Shot down over St Omer, he spent the rest of the war as POW. There, in Oflag XXIB, he escaped, but was caught and put back in the camp. After the liberation, he returned to active service with the RAF, flyig the Meteors and advancing to the rank of Wing Commander. [Times Online]
  
  
• Former Australian Spitfire pilot Ted Sly has returned to flying at the age of 90 [Ballina Shire Advocate]
  
  
• The campaign to raise a Spitfire moemorial in Southampton has now been backed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown [Daily Echo]
  

Labels: history, warbirds